Swept Away
by hundredsnthousands
Summary: FBI agent, Edward Cullen, was assigned to infiltrate the Cygnet Syndicate and bring down Charles Swan. Isabella Swan was just a means to an end.
1. Chapter 1

**I.**

* * *

It wasn't meant to happen like this.

It was what was necessary. Isabella Swan – sweet and innocent and fragile — was to be used. She was just a means to an end.

But it's been a long time since he's touched something sweet and innocent and fragile. Edward can't blame himself for forgetting what it's like.

He doesn't understand it, because she's _not_ stupid. Yet she looks at him with that soft smile tugging her lips, an adoring gaze he's never really seen before, and he thinks she should _know_.

Despite everything, she just can't see the wounds and scars on him, or the cold calculation when he takes her hand. Some part of him wants to tell her everything, to show her how deep those scars really run, but he can't. He needs her ignorant.

So he tries not to care. Because he wasn't meant to.

* * *

xx


	2. Chapter 2

**II.**

* * *

Sometimes he just wants to crawl inside her head and never leave. He thinks it must be nice there – there's light and color and joy. He can't remember any of those things.

She doesn't have a clue. She's like everyone that way – except of course she's not. She's her, and she should see – she should flinch and recoil, she should run away from the man who _thinks_ he can use and destroy her, who _can_ use and destroy her, who _will_ use and destroy her, because what else can he do?

But she doesn't have a clue.

She's dragging him into her world, her happy world. And he wants to follow her – it's his long standing wish to be someone else, anyone else, and she's offering it on a silver platter. But he knows he can't stand in the light with her, because she is no wish-granting fairy or whatever, and he is not the hero with a choice. Anything but. He is the monster who will use and destroy her.

And she doesn't have a clue.

* * *

xx


	3. Chapter 3

**III.**

* * *

She shouldn't have been dragged into this.

It's what he needed, sure. As the months and years pass, he can see a darkness growing behind her eyes with every moment he's with her. She swallows his lies without a doubt and he kind of wants to hit her, to make her _see_. To show himself as the traitor, and to let her take in his darkness without pretense.

Some tiny, daring part of him wants to reveal the truth. That part of him seems to think she would understand. He thinks that part is a liar, but he can't be sure.

She is sure, though. She opens her heart to everyone and seems not to notice the knives they've wedged in there. He'd like to be like her, to see goodness in everyone, to see goodness in himself. Because she lets him near her and there must be a reason for that, other than her being naïve and not having a clue what is really going on.

But he's not like Isabella. Edward sees the knives in him, and he sees the one he's slowly pushing into her.

He hopes he won't be there when she breaks.

* * *

xx


	4. Chapter 4

**IV.**

* * *

Before meeting her, he didn't believe people like her existed.

When he and his team were planning this, deciding how and when to get her near him, he knew for a fact she would be dark. Everyone was. He could see that in her, in that sweet nervous way she smiled – she had to have some dark secret, some reason to drag him into hell. He braced himself for that before he said a word to her.

It never came.

Instead, that sweet smile hid...a sweeter look of confusion. It hid her banter and beliefs and everything everyone would show to the world, and he knew it was completely genuine with her. That was what dragged him into hell.

He hates her a little for it. For daring to let him near her, for being stupid enough not to see him, to see what he needs from her.

"I'm no fool," she's said it more than once, so he doesn't understand how she can live in this darkness and not see it.

He hates her for lying. For promising the darkness she just couldn't give.

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xx


	5. Chapter 5

**V.**

* * *

Edward doesn't know when he started loving her. It really came as something of a shock – he could feel the wish for that sweetness she has, but _love_? He doesn't understand that.

But suddenly, in a moment, he just can't use her anymore — he needs her.

He _wants_ to see the love and innocence in her eyes. He forgets everything that reminds him that he's wrong and cruel and a traitor — the man who will destroy her world. He _needs_ to see it — the love and innocence — and hopes that when all is said and done she'll still want to be with him.

It makes him laugh. What has he gotten himself into? Of course, being cruel and manipulative to this sweet girl would result in him falling for her. Wasn't it poetic justice?

He should run. He should forget himself and walk away from the one person who has faith in him, who loves him, because he's going to crash and burn spectacularly. He's going to let her down, he's going to be the one to break her, and he's not sure he can live with that.

He soon realizes it's not his choice.

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xx


	6. Chapter 6

**VI.**

* * *

She shouldn't have let him near her.

He's always known it, but never was it clearer than when she was dragged out of their home by agents, eyes wide, screaming his name. No, not his name. She was screaming for her fiancé, Tony Masen, a man that didn't exist.

"We had a deal — I was supposed to talk to Isabella before your men took me in. Just give me ten minutes with her," the words ring in his head, but it's not like his case handler has ever been trustworthy. His request was denied with a congratulatory slap on the back.

His job was done.

He never got the chance to tell her that he — Edward Cullen — loves her, that she wasn't just a job.

It's not like he even half-expected this whole thing to go according to plan. But he never expected her to let him in like she did, and he never expected to need her, to love her the way he did.

* * *

xx


	7. Chapter 7

**Swept Away**

 **[Sentimental Version]**

 _You said with such honest feeling_

 _But what'd you really mean_

 _When you said that I'm your man_

 _Well how my darling can it be_

 _When you have never seen me_

 _And you never will again_

—The Avett Brothers

* * *

 **VII.**

* * *

He doesn't mean to miss her like this. He knew this was coming from the moment he laid eyes on her - the moment when his part would be done and he would leave Bella Swan used and destroyed, if he had any hope of surviving. He doesn't understand why he now feels guilty about it.

He doesn't want to need her. He doesn't want to reach for his phone and have to fight off every instinct to dial her number, to beg for forgiveness and to explain everything. He doesn't want to wonder what he would really say if he made that call, and wonder if she'd even take it.

He tries to act like it's not killing him. He fails spectacularly, of course, and he doesn't have a clue how he got so bad at lying. Emmett is saying stupid stuff about being a free man, coming back to the good side, and handing him a beer that he vaguely wants to smash over Emmett's stupid, thick head because he doesn't have a clue what's happening inside of him.

Lucky bastard.

He knew this moment was coming.

He just wasn't prepared for it.

 _...A year later..._

He slipped once the trials were over. He must've called her a million times. She won't take a single call. He guesses having her father and several family members and friends imprisoned in Sing Sing, she's taken as much as she can.

There's only so much one person can do to you and only so much you should let them do.

So yes, he had this moment coming.

But it doesn't stop him from dialing her number yet again.

* * *

There are some betrayals you can't forgive. xx


End file.
